Waikato General Information and History
The Waikato region which is located in the North Island, is the fourth largest region in New Zealand, covering an area of 24,378 square kilometres.
Waikato includes two of the country's largest water masses, the 425-kilometre Waikato River, which is the longest river in New Zealand and Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in New Zealand, measuring 606 square kilometres.
Waikato Infrastructure
The Waikato region has approx 10,104 kilometres of road, the third highest of any region, accounting for 11.0% of the total road length in the country.
It has the greatest length of state highways nationally, 1,541 kilometres, reflecting the importance of the Waikato region as a link between the upper and lower North Island.
Waikato's roads are fairly busy. This is related to the proximity of the Auckland region, which has the largest population in the country.
The region is also close to two main sea ports, Auckland and Tauranga.
Waikato Statistics
The Waikato benefits from longer sunshine hours than the national average, and annual rainfall is similar to the national average of 1,500 millimetres per year.
The climate is warm, with a minimum mid-winter average of three degrees centigrade and a maximum mid-summer average, 24 degrees centigrade.
Inland Waikato, around Taupo, suffers from colder temperatures in winter, similar to the southern-central South Island.
The Waikato region is a significant tourist destination for New Zealand, incorporating within its boundaries or providing access to some of the most important tourist destinations in the country.
It is an area with considerable variety in natural resources.
The region is fairly large in terms of land area and population, so provides a diverse range of opportunities for employment and living.
The heart of the region is the dairy industry, and the associated services including research and manufacturing.
The region also includes the Coromandel and Taupo districts, which are renowned for tourism, forestry and mining.
It has a university and a number of research institutes, so there is a focus on research and innovation, particularly in the bio-technology area.
Waikato History
To journey south from Auckland into the green Waikato basin is to travel a highway created by war.
The busy Great South Rd between Auckland and Hamilton following the curves of New Zealand's greatest river, began as a military road built to assert British authority and to challenge the Maori.
Horse-drawn gun carriages and amunition wagons used the riverside road after it had been leveled by the boots of tramping infantry.
From fortified hills Maori defenders of the region looked down on the invading British regiments backed by menacing gunboats.
The Waikato was the setting for the largest and most formal war between Maori and Europeans in the nineteenth century. Today fast roads slice through battle sites and scenes of slaughter are grazed by sleek dairy herds
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The land defended bitterly by the Maori now displays the richest of pastoral panoramas. However, hardly a hint of old conflicts seem to remain.
There are nearly three dairy cows for each of its two hundred and fifty thousand people, as well as beef, cattle, sheep, thoroughbred horses, deer and goats.
At the centre of the region is New Zealand's greatest inland city. Hamilton has a distinct and affluent urban identity; it is no satellite of Auckland, though little more than a hundred kilometres south.
Waikato's Boundary
The Waikato has little high-lying land of significance. Mountain, river and sea form its boundaries.
To the east lie the Coromandel and Kaimai Ranges; to the north is the Waikato River mouth and the Manukau harbour; to the west is the surf of the Tasman's shore beneath rugged Pirongia Mountain and to the south the slow Puniu River flows, with the hills of the King Country beyond.
The region's soil consists largely of debris left by the Waikato's waters as it flowed first into the Firth of Thames on New Zealand's east coast leaving the Hauraki-Piako Plains behind, and then swerved west into its present course.